ABOUT ALEX...

*Okay, I hate writing in the third person, so let's dispense with the "Alex did this" and "Alex did that" and just admit that like everyone else without a personal biographer on payroll, I wrote this!*

I grew up in Western Pennsylvania just a bit outside Pittsburgh. Things didn't start out so great - I was born "tongue-tied" and colorblind. (I got over the first one, but not the second. Seriously, what color am I wearing today?) I've always had a natural desire to perform - my parents tell a story in which we were watching a local magician perform, and he asked for the proverbial "volunteer". Well, I volunteered my four-year-old self so hard that I ended up in tears, until he HAD to bring me up onstage, if only to shut me up. I can only assume I was a phenomenal volunteer.

This urge remained dormant until I got involved with a local theatre company around age 17. For the next few years, I threw myself into this new thing, getting involved in any way I could. It only took a short while to realize that this was the only thing that made me happy enough to do my whole life, so I auditioned and was accepted into Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts. I learned more than I could have imagined at the Conservatory; it was a privilege to work with such incredible teaching artists, and a tremendous gift to devote all of my time to work on my own artistic development.

I was also lucky to take advantage of the thriving artistic community in Pittsburgh and seize opportunities outside of the Conservatory. I got involved with a consortium of local playwrights, becoming one of the two "resident actors" who brought their brand new words to life each Monday night. In 2009, I was cast in a production of Douglas Carter-Beane's Little Dog Laughed at Off the Wall Theatre as Alex, a young, jaded male prostitute. (Typecasting alert!) It became my favorite role to date, and I won Best Featured Actor of 2009 by OutOnline for my performance. It also involved being fully nude in front of my family (including my grandmother), which is a professional triumph that I don't think I'll ever top.

I graduated from the Conservatory in 2011 with my BFA in Acting, and promptly packed up all of my belongings - thus myself, my wonderful girlfriend, and our new puppy hopped into a 17-foot U-Haul and moved to New York City. We settled in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and I've been here and happy ever since, always looking for new artistic adventures and opportunities. 

Most recently, I was chosen by Google as one of the 8,000 "Explorers" in the US to test out their wearable computer, "Google Glass". Of course, I'm most interested in seeing if it has applications in the world of live performance, and I have some ideas of what I'd like to do with it. My hope is to produce Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman with the main character, Katurian, wearing the Google Glass throughout the play. The Google Glass would broadcast his first-person point-of-view, and the audience would use their smartphones to "join in" on this secret window into the main character's perspective. I believe it would be an engaging merger of the intimacy of film combined with the power and excitement of live performance. Interested in helping me make this happen? I'm looking for people of all artistic disciplines for help and inspiration, so get in touch through my Contact page!

Thanks for reading! 

-Alex